Clement "Skip" Francis Diegel Jr.

The MAB has learned of the passing of former Michigan broadcaster Skip) Diegel, who passed away unexpectedly at age 75 in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Growing up with a music, both classical and oldies, Diegel, at age 14 found his calling and began to DJ for local parties and dances in the Ypsilanti/Ann Arbor area. By the time he was 16, he got a part time job working at a local radio station in Ann Arbor, MI.  According to Michigan's Art Vuolo, Jr, that station, WAAM-AM, would be managed by Diegel years later.  Diegel also general manager of WKHM in Jackson as well as WFGR in Grand Rapids, MI before heading south for Florida.

He was one of the original managers of local WVLG in The Villages (popular retirement community) north of Orlando from 2001 through 2008 when he purchased a stand-alone AM WSBB in New Smyrna Beach, FL. After years of super serving the community, he added an FM, making it even better.

He accepted an offer from Cox Media Group to allow them to use the WSBB call letters for an FM simulcast of its WSB-AM in Atlanta (as WSBB-FM).  Diegel hung on to the WSBB call letters for his AM.

Born Clement Francis Diegel Jr. in 1948, he attended St. John Catholic High School in Ypsilanti, attended Cleary College in Howell for a brief time and then enrolled in the Electronic Institute of Technology in Detroit, where he obtained his broadcasting degree.

Vuolo told the MAB that "Skip was a rare broadcaster who did it all, morning host, worked remotes, sales, managed the station and owned it outright as well. He was a breed we don't see much of anymore. Locally he'll be missed."